The Llagas Creek Flood Protection Project, first conceived in the 1950s, is the never ending project. It's what happens when bureaucracies meet funding roadblocks that lead to the proverbial political football being tossed about until half a century passes and the project remains incomplete. Today, it remains half finished, causing routine flooding in neighboring Morgan Hill. Major floods occurred in 1937, 1955, 1958, 1962, 1963, 1969, 1982, 1986, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2002 and 2008. Last October nearly seven inches of rain fell in 24 hours, damaging existing homes and businesses and causing $140,000 in public property damage. Morgan Hill public works director Jim Ashcraft has said that construction of the channel would prevent most of the downtown flooding.
The political football was first in the hands of the Army Corps of Engineers before they tossed it to the Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Santa Clara Valley Water District, which eventually gave it back to the Corps. In 1993, the city of Morgan Hill and the water district undertook an effort to preserve the natural creek extending through downtown Morgan Hill. In 2004, the city and the district entered into a cost-sharing agreement to fund essential investigations to keep the project on schedule. The agreement funded a geotechnical investigation, hazardous materials investigation and a tree and riparian corridor assessment.
In 2009, the city and the water district entered into another cost-sharing agreement to fund and prepare project designs, Environmental Impact Reports and the U.S. Army Corps' design documentation report.
Despite all the behind-the-scenes work, no dirt has been moved. The $130-million project - when complete - will extend approximately 12.5 miles from Buena Vista Avenue upstream to just beyond Wright Avenue, and provide 100-year level of flood protection in the urban areas of Morgan Hill. But the problem is that legislators often look at it as two projects - one finished in Gilroy where significant flooding now since the Uvas Levee was completed - is rare, the other in Morgan Hill that still remains in the planning stages. That, unfortunately, has lessened the sense of urgency to complete the project.
Where does that leave us? In a flooded limbo. South County legislators, water district officials and the Corps, need to remember that the Llagas Creek Flood Protection Project is half finished. It's not two projects. Perhaps Jerry McNerney, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer can blow up the logjams and get the project funded to completion. It would be an excellent use for TARP funds, jobs would be created and, most importantly, the ongoing flooding problems would finally, after years of being ignored, would be fixed.
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